During the spring of my junior year, I had the chance to study abroad in Metz, France through the Georgia Tech-Lorraine program. I had always wanted to study in France for a semester because of my experiences learning French in school, but I wasn’t sure I would ever fit it into my schedule as a Computer Science major. I’m here to tell you that not only can you study abroad as an engineer, you can have an amazing time while doing it! I’ll take you along for a day in the life of studying in Metz while discussing some of the things I learned from studying abroad.
Author: Beth Kunz (Page 1 of 2)
Making friends at any point in life can be daunting. However, nothing-quite compares to the time where you leave everything you know including your family, friends, and hometown to start fresh in a small upstate New York town. I know firsthand how daunting it can be as I moved from Houston to Ithaca not knowing a single soul. However, as our parents like to say, “it will all work out” and it certainly did.
I wrote my college application essays almost four years ago about wanting to shoot for the stars. My childhood was punctuated by space missions: Discovery’s Return to Flight, Cassini-Huygens, and New Horizons. In Cornell Engineering’s project teams and work co-op program, I saw a place that would enable me to fulfill my dream of becoming an engineer in the new Space Race.
I’ve known about Cornell since I was little. From when I first learned about careers to about sophomore year of high school, I wanted to be a veterinarian, and attending Cornell Veterinary School was my dream. When I became interested in engineering, Cornell faded from the picture slightly as I looked at closer schools (I live in Utah, so it’s a real trek to Cornell). In the last few days of the application time period, I decided to apply to Cornell just to see what would happen, since it had been a childhood dream to attend.
Hello everyone! My name is Shristi Varshney, and I am from Framingham, Massachusetts. I am a senior majoring in chemical & biomolecular engineering and minoring in business. I am also concurrently pursuing a Masters in Engineering (M.Eng.) in chemical & biomolecular engineering and will be graduating with that in December 2020 with both my B.S. and M.Eng. This blog post is about my study abroad experience in London in the summer of 2018!
Entering college, I had this expectation that my engineering classes would be a textbook heavy, stress inducing lifestyle that I just had to get accustomed to in order to succeed. This is what all my high school teachers told me — this is how their college experiences turned out, and thus my own experience had to mirror exactly. Yet, I quickly realized that almost all of the classes I have taken have proved this intuition wrong, eradicating the idea that textbooks are the only way to learn material and that professors are out to get us with unending problem sets and exams.
If three years ago, you told me that I would be writing a blog about my experience at Cornell, the first thing that would surprise me is that I’m writing a blog. The second thing, however, would be that I attended Cornell. I chose Cornell simply because I thought it was one of the best engineering schools with the best combination of prestige and education. I turned out to be right. What I did not know nor think of, was what living at Cornell would be like. I can proudly tell you that I have loved my experience here and will miss it when I graduate next year. To help you, now that you are where I was a few years ago, I can describe to you my daily life at Cornell.
One of the most exciting and eventful times of my life was arriving at Cornell and diving into the “college experience”. But during this time I also knew that coming to Cornell to study engineering has the unfortunate consequence of having to study. A lot.
At first I began working alone in my room at my cluttered desk for hours on end. This routine quickly and inevitably fell victim to the seductive nature of the internet and Netflix. So I decided to change up where I study and began to explore what Cornell’s libraries, atriums, and study spaces have to offer.
The multitude of performances, athletic events, guest lectures, and social gatherings happening at any given time at Cornell makes it easy to occupy your free time without leaving campus. This fact was one of the many reasons I chose to come to Cornell, as this packed schedule builds a strong community of students centered around the campus. That said, my Cornell experience would have been severely limited had I never taken opportunities to engage in activities and programs within the Ithaca community.
Barton Hall, the location of Club Fest, is filled with students.
One of my personal favorite things about Cornell is the extensive and diverse opportunities every student is given to become involved in extracurricular activities. With events like Club Fest, Project Fest, and various student groups always tabling or handing out quarter-cards on Ho Plaza or in Robert Purcell Community Center, all Cornell students (especially incoming freshmen) are constantly presented with ample opportunities to become involved in the Cornell community.